The week flew by faster than usual, and Friday came around before I knew it. School let out early due to a bad power outage, they had started happening more frequently now. The weather wasn’t letting up, and it had rained for the better part of the week. Luckily, it wasn’t raining as hard as it was when I left for school this morning, but there were puddles everywhere and the rain would come down in random sheets.
By the time I walked home, my pant legs were wet up to my knees and I was freezing. I stopped at the mailbox and pulled the pile of mail out, shoving it under my jacket quickly to keep it from getting wet. There was a rustling sound behind me, and I thought I heard someone say something, but when I turned around the street was empty. I hurried into the house and shed my outer layers of clothing, leaving them in a heap on the floor next to the door.
I dropped the mail on the table near the wall and ran upstairs. Zach wasn’t home yet, his school hadn’t been hit by the power outage. I shook my hair out while I walked down the hallway, my jeans sticking to my skin and making my legs itch. After changing into a pair of dry pajama bottoms, I went back downstairs to flip through the mail.
Mainly it was all bills or letters for my mom, but there was an envelope stuck in the middle with nothing but my name printed neatly on it. I set everything else down and turned the envelope over in my hands. There wasn’t anything on the backside, no return address or hint at who it was even from.
Cautiously, I tore the edge off the side of the envelope and pulled a folded piece of paper out of it. I unfolded it, keeping the envelop between two fingers, and raised my eyebrow as my eyes swept across the paper. It was blank, save for a line of small print in the middle.
Meet me outside tonight at ten, don’t be late.
I looked around the room, like the person who left it would be standing there. I was staring at the note, zoning out a little bit when a sudden knock on the door caused me to jump. The note slipped out of my hand and I quickly picked it up, stuffing it back in the envelope and setting it on top of the other mail.
I opened the door without even checking who it was, and my shoulders dropped when Carson was the one who was standing on the porch. He was drenched, despite the fact that the rain had just about stopped, which led me to believe that he had been outside for a while now.
“Hey, Molly.” He smiled at me and tussled some of the water out of his hair. I flinched slightly as a few drops landed on my face.
“Do you need something?” He glanced down at his feet, my eyes followed his, to the bundle of logs. I raised my eyebrows for a second and then stepped aside to let him in.
“I tried to get them over here as fast as I could, but I think the top ones are a little wet.” He grabbed the bundle and carried it into the house, wiping his feet quickly before stepping off the mat in front of the door.
“That’s fine.” I started to close the door, but something near the mailbox caught my eye. There was the shape of a figure standing there, half hidden by the tree that sat at the edge of the sidewalk. The clouds had suddenly covered the sky, making it darker outside than it should have been. When I started to step onto the porch to get a better look, the figure was gone.
My brow furrowed as I stared at the spot where the figure stood and I only turned back into the house when I heard Carson start to talk again.
“…but I’m only here to drop these off, so you don’t have to worry about be bothering you.” I stared at Carson blankly, nodding to acknowledge him. “Tell your mom that I stopped by.” He started towards the door. I followed behind him, but he stopped and turned so abruptly that I bumped into him.
“Sorry.” I looked up to see Carson staring down at me intensely. My cheeks burned involuntarily. “What? What are you staring at me like that for?” He was silent for what felt like forever before he shook his head and went for the door again. I pushed my eyebrows together and grabbed onto the edge of the door as he opening it.
“Oh, you might want to lock your doors.” He turned and looked at me again. “There’s been talk of someone hanging around outside and the neighborhood thinks it’s pretty suspicious.” He grinned at me and ran his fingers through his hair. “I don’t think there’s anything to worry about, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Right, kitten?”
“Tch,” I frowned when he used the nickname, and at the fact that the look he had on his face while he said it made my whole face go red. He looked so sincerely worried about me, it made my stomach turn. “I’ll lock my doors if it’ll keep you out of my house.” He laughed a little and I shut the door on him. “Stupid Carson.” I hesitated for a moment and then turned the deadbolt on the door.
* * *
I stared at the note from earlier, laying on my bed, fretting about whether or not I would even go out tonight to see who left it. With a bit of an irritated sigh, I grabbed the note and wadded it up. I stared down at the wad of paper for a moment before tossing it into the trash can.
It was probably Carson who left the note anyway. I looked at the trash can for a second before shaking my head and heading out of my room.
* * *
I poked at my food with my fork absentmindedly. The entire dining room was silent except for the sound of the silverware scraping against the ceramic plates. Vincent had stopped by earlier and my mom decided to just invite him to stay for dinner. He accepted.
“So there was another blackout today, Molly?” I looked up from my plate and over at my mom, avoiding making any kind of eye contact with Vincent.
“Huh? Oh, yeah. We got let out early again because they weren’t sure when the power was going to come back on.” Just having Vincent in the same room as me was making my skin flush with colour. I could feel my face heating up more and more with each passing second. That in itself was embarrassing, which only fueled my blood to rush even more.
Luckily, my mom decided to change the subject, turning the focus of the conversation to Zach. Everything went fairly smooth from then until everyone finished eating. I took the dishes from the table at my mom’s request and hauled them to the kitchen. I set them on the counter near the sink and ran the faucet as I started to scrape the leftover food pieces into the garbage disposal.
A heavy presence in the room drew my attention away from what I was doing. I looked to my left to see Vincent, leaning against the door jam, staring at me. I fixed my eyes on the dishes again. I could hear my mom and Zach talking upstairs.
“I need to talk to you.” I glanced over towards Vincent again, he was closer to me now, standing at the edge of the counter. “It’s about the other day.” I felt my heart leap up into my throat and I had to swallow hard to keep it down.
“I don’t see why we have to talk about it.” I turned the faucet off and wiped my hands off on my jeans. “It wasn’t like it meant anything and it’s not like it will be happening agai—” He was inches away from me when I went to face him directly. My train of thought was off the tracks in seconds when he pressed his index finger to my lips, shushing me.
“Molly, this is serious. You can’t tell anyone.” I only managed a slight nod, to acknowledge that I heard what he said. At the time, I had forgotten that my friends already knew about it, but he didn’t know that. He didn’t have to know about that. His eyes narrowed slightly. “Unless, you’ve already told someone.”
I opened my mouth a little to speak, but was afraid to even mutter a single word against his skin. He pulled his hand back, eyebrows pushing together as his fingers found their way to my neck, grazing it just enough to give me chills down my spine. He took my chin in one of his hands and pulled me up towards his face. I hesitated for a moment, but caved and waited for his lips to meet mine.
They never did though, he just brushed his lips against mine and rested his forehead against mine. His arms wound around me and I turned into putty in them. The heat from his body was enough to make my head spin, everything about this man was completely intoxicating. My body began to go limp, but Vincent supported me. He moved his mouth to my ear and spoke in a tone just above a whisper.
“I’m going to let it slide that you told your friends about the kiss.”
“But how did you know that I—” He cut me off again by moving his hands down my back a little. I bit my bottom lip and waited for him to speak, to do something.
“Don’t tell anyone else, or mention anything else to your friends though. I’m afraid that people wouldn’t,” he paused, “approve, of what is going on here.” The floorboards upstairs creaked and my mom said something to Zach loudly.
“I won’t say anything. I swear.” His arms retreated from my sides slowly, his fingers lingering at my hips. I stared up at him, face flushed considerably, as he took a step back and created some space between us.
“That’s a good girl.”
* * *
I could see the note from earlier sitting at the top of my trash can, mocking me with it’s secrets. On one hand, Carson could have easily been the one who left the note. It was definitely something that he hadn’t ever done before, but I wasn’t about to put it past him to at least try it. He’d do anything to get me alone with him.
On the other hand though, after dinner, I started to think about Vincent being the one who left it for me. We did have this secretive, whatever this was, going on. So it would make sense for him to leave me a note, with information for a late night rendezvous.
I rolled over onto my back on my bed and stared up at my ceiling. It was Friday night, and I didn’t have any other plans. So it wouldn’t hurt to just go see who it was who left the note, right? If I didn’t, my curiosity would drive me crazy.
